Blood Orange Bars with a Brown Butter Crust

I don't like to advertise my cooking failures, the original post of this recipe contains blood orange bars that are such a beautiful color...but for some reason mine turned out looking sad and not like the vibrant bars I was expecting. I'm not sure if I cooked them for too long or incorporated something incorrectly, but we served the finished product to our friends and everyone really liked the taste, so I decided to share the recipe anyway.

Recipe from the White on Rice Couple.

Ingredients:

Crust Ingredients

-1/4 pound unsalted butter

-1/4 cup sugar

-1 1/2 cups flour

-1/4 teaspoon salt

Blood Orange Curd Ingredients - makes 3 cups

-1/8 cup cornstarch

-3/4 cup sugar

-1/2 teaspoon sea salt or Kosher Salt

-6 eggs, beaten

-2 egg yolks, beaten

-zest of 6 blood oranges

-1 1/4 cups blood orange juice

-1/4 pound  cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces

First make the crust by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking the butter until it develops an amber color. Remove from heat and stir sugar into butter until mostly dissolved.  In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt, then stir in butter and sugar and mix until the ingredients are incorporated and have formed a crumbly dough. Press the crust into a 8x8 pan, pressing a little bit of the dough up the sides to form a "rim" on the crust. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden.

While the crust bakes, make the curd by whisking together the cornstarch, sugar and the salt in a bowl. Mix in the eggs, zest, and juice. Place bowl over a pot with gently boiling water (cook over a double boiler). Cook the curd in the bowl over the double boiler, stirring frequently until the curd has thickened. Remove from heat and then, stir in the butter a few pieces at a time, until it is completely incorporated into the mixture.

Once the crust has finished baking, our the curd into the cooked crust. Then return the crust/curd oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until the filling has thickened. Place in the fridge to chill overnight.

I love using blood oranges due to their pretty and vibrant color, so I was disappointed when this didn't turn out as anticipated, but the filling in the blood orange bars was full of flavor and the nutty taste of the brown butter crust complemented the tangy-sweetness nicely.